Is Meditation About to Become The New SoulCycle?

Supermodel Gisele Bündchen credits it with helping her lose her baby weight, Goldman Sachs claims it gives their traders an edge on the stock market, the Seattle Seahawks used it to win the Super Bowl, and star facialist Kate Somerville promises it’s the key to a glowing complexion. What is the name of this magic pill? “Meditation,” says Suze Yalof Schwartz, the founder of Unplug Meditation—a newly opened guided meditation studio in Los Angeles that draws a SoulCycle–worthy cult following of plugged-in, stressed-out millenials, who gather in groups of up to 52 people in the service of quieting an overactive mind.

The benefits of spending a few minutes each day focusing inward are well documented, and while you may not work up a sweat, those who have attempted a daily practice understand the mental hurdles of simply tuning in and dropping out.

In fact, Yalof Schwartz first began meditating in an effort to better cope with her own hectic schedule after relocating to California. She soon became frustrated at the lack of affordable, time-sensitive options. The idea of designing a minimalist, Buddha-free space that would make the process easier by organizing it into a series of rolling 30-minute and 45-minute classes throughout the day came to her in something of an ‘aha moment. “I imagined a place where type-A personalities like me could [focus] with no distractions,” she explains.

The resulting Zen-like studio is located off of a bamboo-filled courtyard, staffed by a preternaturally calm team of experts (including Maha Yoga founder Steve Ross and wellness author Olivia Rosewood), and features a schedule of drop-in classes that tackle everything from anxiety to mindful eating and fear of flying. “I like to think of Unplug as the perfectly edited meditation,” says Yalof Schwartz. “Simple and spontaneous.”